KALEBAfter my meeting with Cassandra, I escorted the healer back to her chamber, and once she was back there, safe and sound, I made the decision to pay Raven a visit. As I rushed straight to her laboratory in the prison tower, my hands balled into a fist at my sides. I was angry, more angry than I’d been in quite some time.I couldn’t let Ronald take my throne from me.I couldn’t let anyone take my power from me. Not after everything I’d been through to become the king of this country. I’d made too many sacrifices, shed too much blood, and cried too many tears in the quiet of my bedroom, to allow someone as terrible as Ronald to take my crown from me.No.This ended now.When I reached Raven’s laboratory, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see her goofing around. She was playing with a pair of blood samples, combining them with some unknown chemicals and potions, and seeing how they reacted. I wanted to swipe them off of the table and throw them on the floor. She was behaving like
BECKYBefore Rayden departed for the king’s cousin’s wedding in Yurene, he came to visit us in Anemond. When he arrived at the clinic, he was disguised as one of the businessmen who had swarmed the city in the hopes of attracting the attention of Oliver Moses. They wanted to show their loyalty to the Moses Family since they now controlled all of Anemond.In the Alpha King’s absence, they had taken over the capital of Wegalla, and much to my surprise, as well as Dickson’s everyone seemed to forget about the king. I wasn’t an optimist in the slightest, but to see the citizens of Anemond switch up their loyalty so quickly only added to my dislike of this place. While the Alpha King and I didn’t know each other outside of our interactions at the clinic, he seemed like a nice enough man, one who didn’t deserve any of this.We accepted Rayden into the clinic and then escorted him to the meeting room in the back. Dickson prepared us some fragrant tea, and once it was ready, we all gathered a
CASSANDRA Through my chamber window, I could see cars and well-dressed werewolves cross through the main gate and enter the fortress every hour starting from the early morning hours. Even from my place on the second floor, I could hear the bustling sounds of the grounds. Vlokwell was alive with activity, and my heart was racing as I realized the scale of this impending wedding. Most of the guests attending Helene and Ronald’s ceremony were being accommodated in the main building, but a few were being housed in the side buildings, including the one where I resided. With all of the activity and movement throughout the fortress, Ms. Benn was incredibly busy. The head housekeeper stopped by my chamber early in the morning when she usually dropped off Lila and when I noticed her daughter wasn’t with her, mentioned that she would be bringing her daughter by later in the day. As I heard the noise from the hallway filter into my room, I felt uneasy. I hadn’t heard this much commotion in
ASHERThe capital city of Yurene was heavily guarded, even more so than I’d expected. While I’d been well aware that the place would be swarming with security, given the scale of the wedding, the sheer amount of guards that stood around was impressive.Our car joined the line of other vehicles waiting to approach the enormous gates, and when I rolled down the window, the guards began to speak. We were told once entered through the enormous gate that our identities needed to be triple-checked before we could enter the castle that stood in the distance. The castle was equally impressive, its walls soaring so high into the air that it looked like it was kissing the clouds. It was an amazing sight to behold, though I hated admitting that anything in Yurene was impressive.While I had been nervous to come here, I knew I had a low chance of getting caught, especially since I had disguised myself using Darwin’s identity.When I’d initially proposed the plan, the Sky Pride wolf had been agita
CASSANDRAWhen Ms. Benn arrived at my room to pick up Lila, she handed me a small, folded-up piece of paper.“It’s an updated list of guests,” she explained when I frowned at her in confusion. “Many of the guests originally listed didn’t come and some new names have been added.”When I nodded my head, she released a reluctant sigh.“I also did as you requested and arranged most of the Southern guests in this building,” she revealed, a pained expression in her voice.Though I wasn’t proud of my actions, I knew they’d been necessary. Just before Ms. Benn had left my chamber earlier that day, I’d demanded that she move the Southerners to the same building I resided in. She’d been reluctant to oblige my request, but I hadn’t taken no for an answer.I was pleased to know that at the very least, she’d followed through. I hadn’t liked my actions, but this was too important of an opportunity to waste.“Thank you, Ms. Benn,” I said.“I don’t need your thanks,” the head housekeeper sniffed and
CASSANDRAI stopped struggling and widened my eyes as my heart stopped in my chest.Asher’s voice sounded coarse and more tense than I’d ever heard it, but I knew at once that it was him.It was almost impossible to believe, but it was true.Asher was here in Yurene.My mate was here in this cold, terrible country.He turned around to face me, and though we couldn’t see each other in this darkness, the scent, the warmth of his body… everything was so familiar it couldn’t be ignored.After a moment of silence, I felt Asher’s finger brush across my cheeks. I hadn’t realized I was crying until I felt the wetness of my tears against my skin.When he pulled me into a tight hug, he whispered in my ear.“‘I’ve missed you so much, Cassandra,” he said, and then he pulled away and kissed my neck and then my lips. Then he reached for my hand and began to kiss each of my fingers devoutly.“I couldn’t bear not seeing you,” he whispered in between kisses. “I’ve missed you so much.”As his lips danc
CASSANDRAConfusion flooded my mind and my lips parted as I stared at Asher. I felt lost, and I kept waiting for the Alpha King to say something more for clarification, but instead, he simply stared at me.For a moment, he reminded me of Finnick. The two looked so much alike and this expression was no exception. Sometimes, Finnick would stare at me in the same way if I forgot something I had promised like he was a puppy who had been wronged by his owner. It was a vulnerable look I’d never expected to see on an adult man’s face, and the mere sight of it made my heart hurt.“What do you mean?” I asked him directly after another moment of silence.Asher’s dark eyebrows creased together and then he let out a soft sigh.“I heard that you are about to marry the king of Yurene,” he revealed. “That you two are engaged to one another. Is that true?”A lump formed in my throat and my eyes widened.How had Asher found out about this? Kaleb had promised to not let him know. It was one of the requ
CASSANDRAAfter what felt like an eternity of hearing about the event, Ronald and Helene’s wedding day came.Aside from the new guests who had arrived early in the morning, everyone was invited to visit Ronald’s residence and have lunch with the happy couple.Just as I had yesterday, I’d decided to take a walk around the castle grounds, and as I roamed about, I shivered. The weather wasn’t ideal for a wedding. It was incredibly dismal and cloudy, not to mention windy, with no sun shining through the thick layer of clouds. It looked like it could rain at any given moment. I doubted there would be a visible moon in the sky when the night came.In the South, werewolf couples had to make their vows beneath the moon, otherwise, it was believed the marriage would be doomed. It was a superstition, most likely, but still, it was an important thing to my people.But the Northerners didn’t seem to care about such traditions. I heard no mentions of the moon at all amongst the guests or anyone el